This needs little introduction, having spawned numerous films & game after game for the last 20 years!
Mortal Kombat actually started out as a gory video game adaption of “Universal Soldier” using digitised characters. Unfortunately the project fell through. Not ready to give up the makers tried to tie in the film “Bloodsport” instead, which suffered the same fate. They eventually made the game anyway, making Johnny Cage a parody of Van Damme..
It was praised for being original with it’s digitised characters & gory finishing moves, making famous the quote “finish him!”.
To be fair though Atari’s Pitfighter had already done the digitised characters, & for finishing moves 1991’s Moonstone was more gruesome than a horror film on spaghetti night!
In America this game single handedly forced the creation of the ESRB! (entertainment software ratings board)
